Broadband News

Love broadband? Japan is the place to be.

vnunet.com reports on the Japanese broadband market, which is very different from the UK one.
Japan currently has 5.35 million homes and businesses connected using fibre to the home (FTTH) services as of March 2006, which includes 2.5 million new subscribers in 2005. The country has 14.45
million ADSL subscribers, with this number only growing slightly each year now.

Amazingly Japan accounts for 80% of the FTTH market around the world, which shows just how far behind many countries including the UK are. The speeds of connection available are generally up to
100Mbps, but 1Gbps and 10Gbps speeds are in the pipeline in Japan.

Though before people rush to Japan, it is worth considering that Tokyo and Osaka are ranked as the two most expensive cities in the world to live in, though London does make third spot. Wikipedia has a wealth of information on Japan for those wanting to look more into why Japan has broadband we can but
dream of in the UK.